Sophie Ball | Apps for Good
Sophie joined Apps for Good in 2013 as part of the Business Development team after completing a four year BA degree at University College London in History and French (with a year spent studying at the Sorbonne in Paris). Whilst at University Sophie had the opportunity to work for a small start-up Benivo (previously FlatClub) and became increasingly excited about how technology can be created and leveraged to improve people's everyday lives and communities. On finishing University, the opportunity at Apps for Good then perfectly combined Sophie's already existing passion about education and growing interest in technology. Now after 4.5 years at Apps for Good, Sophie has built and nurtured a number of long-term social impact partnerships with industry partners and large foundations and trusts, enabling Apps for Good's reach to grow from 6,000 to over 28,000 students per year across the UK. Sophie particularly enjoys developing new products and forging new partnerships with the aim to improve the diversity of Apps for Good's beneficiaries and in particular gender equality in the wider tech sector. Sophie now looks forward to continuing to deepen Apps for Good's impact on young people, develop more valuable partnerships for social good and be a positive agent for change, supporting a more diverse talent pipeline into tech and business.
Joana Baptista | Oxford High School GDST
Joana is an award-winning 16-year-old entrepreneur from Oxford, currently studying for her A-levels at Oxford High School (Computer Science, Economics, Maths, Spanish). As well as excelling in her educational studies, she is the founder of three successful startups, a podcast show and an Economics magazine.
She has set up a popular code-club for 7-17-year-olds, as well as teaching computer science and internet safety workshops to disadvantaged pupils. She also teaches science lessons and has delivered talks at a variety of schools and University on Business, STEM and Misogyny, both to students and teachers. Further to talks, she has sat on, and chaired, panels for the University of Cambridge, Girl Guides, STEMettes and most recently, Facebook.
Her three passions lie in STEM, Entrepreneurship and feminism, which she advocates for through every activity she is involved in.
Her proudest achievement was being named the Young Star at the Women of the Future Awards 2017, having been a finalist the year before in the Rising Star category of the FDM Women in Technology Awards.
Anita Verma | Marks & Spencer
I am Anita, 26, from Lisariya village of Sikar Rajasthan.
I pursued my primary education there in Sikar only and at a very young age at 15 my family got me married to a person who was 20 years, at that time in 2007.
After three years bearing with him, I decided earn my bread and butter, as he was not totally supporting the family. I moved to Jaipur in 2012 with my newly-born baby.
I could not get any support from either from my family nor from my husband's. I took it as challenge against me, where all the situations were against me. Considering my socio-economic background, I searched for a job to pursue my education and to earn my bread and butter.
Fortunately was able to get a job in jewelry shop as greeter, where I worked very hard and soon within two months I got promoted as sales staff. Along with it, I completed my post graduation from University of Rajasthan.
In the meantime I was offered an opportunity to work with Marks and Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd. as service associate where my work was recognized well. In every alternate month I was Employee of The Month for the store, I lived with all the core values of Marks and Spencer - Inspire, Integrity, innovation and in-touch.
Here I was recognized as value champion for the store and recently I was awarded with Employee of the Quarter award at regional level.
I am educated which helps in making wise decisions the same I am inheriting in my daughter too by giving her good care and education. It is a bit tough but I am managing best at my level. Even after office hours, I have to cook feed and take care of my daughter. Its become little heavy to travel between 25 KM to pursue my job, but I have a very good balance in my personal and professional life.
Micky Lagvankar | Barclays
I am a proud Army daughter and wife and an alumnus of prestigious (B'Tech) Motilal Nehru National institute of Technology.
I started my career with Goldman Sachs Bangalore, as an intern. Here, I learnt the most important work ethic of being true to your work and giving your best from the very start.
I got appreciated for my work during the internship and was offered pre-placement offer which I gladly accepted because there was so much more I wanted to learn from the great organisation. I worked with Goldman Sachs for 4 years in their Asset management Team and the Private wealth management Team.
Joining them as a NAPA exposed us to lot of networking and training opportunities in India and New York from the finest of trainers in the Capital Market industry. Being new was never a deterrent in giving me the opportunity to work on critical projects; this exposure gave me the confidence that I can do it.
I got the opportunity to work as a developer on an Order management tool with the latest tools and coding platform in an agile and test driven methodology way back in 2007. It was in Goldman Sachs that my interest in Business domain increased, to pursue my career further in Risk and Analytics.
I moved to Pune and joined Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia as development lead to deliver their Basel II commitment for Credit Risk. During this period at CLSA I traveled every weekend to Mumbai to pursue Certificate in Financial Engineering and Risk Management from National Institute of Securities Market [an education initiative by SEBI.
I came across the opportunity to work on the latest implementation of Basel III in Barclays Credit Risk division. This helped me to learn a lot about the things I was taught in my course and gain appreciation and recognition. My hard work was rewarded with the opportunity to lead the Credit Risk and Market Risk Project testing team globally.
While working with this wonderful team all across the Globe for the last 3 years I have learnt a lot about how as a team we can achieve so much personally and for the firm.
During my 10 year career I have been blessed to have 2 beautiful kids and get back to work, seeing me working my kids also have become appreciative of my efforts and are very independent.
Rarely one is so lucky to have come across so many wonderful opportunities, so I tried to make most of them but at the same time I have continued to apply my first lesson of doing my best every time every day.
Pallavi Singh | Pallavi Linguistic Services LLP
Nisha Shetty | Barclays
I am currently working as a Business Manager (APAC) in Barclays, Compliance team. In my current role, I manage the headcount budget and financials for the entire Asia Pacific Compliance team. As an extension to my role, effective January 2017, I have been given the additional responsibility of handling a global role, which, inter alia, includes managing headcount for the Barclays International Compliance team, based out in Americas, APAC, London and Europe. I joined Barclays in 2014 as an Analyst in the Compliance Risk Assessment (CRA) Team which facilitates risk assessment, which is a framework for assessing the firm-wide risks and controls in place to establish if any gaps exist. In a year’s time I was seconded to the Chief of Staff team, wherein I adapted quickly and was absorbed into the role full time and also got promoted as an AVP.
I am a Chartered Accountant with more than 5 years of experience in the field of Audit and Compliance. Prior to Barclays I have worked with KPMG and Tata Consultancy Services in their Audit department. In my free time I like to read and travel. I truly live by the saying “Live and Let Live”.
Manpreet Kaur Saran | Marks & Spencer
My name is Miss Manpreet Kaur Saran daughter of Mr.Angrej Singh Saran. I live in a beautiful city Surat a city of textile and diamond merchants.
I completed my schooling from St. Marks high School based in Surat and completed by Graduation from Swami Vivekanand Education Trust Commerce College situated in Jamnagar.
My hobbies are reading books, listening music and cooking.
I have small family of 5 members - Father, Mother and two younger brothers.
I started my career initially as Service Coordinator from Yellow Line Engineering Service Pvt Ltd base in Surat from 21st August 2012 to 22nd September 2013 and then got opportunity to work in Retail as a Customer Service Assistant in Marks and Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd based in Virtuous Mall Surat from 23rd September 2013 and still continuing.In Marks and Spencer,I learn more about Customer service, standard of appearance and I get expert in that then I have started learning my seniors work, which help me to improve my skill level and by delivering the best service and taking extra initiatives I have completely improve my working style and performance.
My seniors appreciated me many times just because of my dedication and positive attitude towards my work.I still keep on learning the new things in my store from my seniors
because I want be perfect leader, a genuine employee, and a friendly colleague in future.
Radha Tiwari | Marks & Spencer
I am 26 year old girl and working with Marks & Spencer as a CSA, I have five years of experience in retail. I have won the employee of the year award nationally in Marks & Spencer. I have been Selected as Spotlight of the quarter in M&S.
I have full filled the role of Trainer in M&S in Lingerie section.
I have eight members in my family and for the last five years I have been contributing 100% of my efforts to support my family
Tanya Thourani | Barclays
An extremely confident young lady in the early twenties, I have always carried my skills of responsibilities and initiative right from college days where I was the Placement head and Computer branch representative. I also had the good fortune of holding a distinction degree in Computer Science from Cummins College of Engineering for women.
Deeply driven by the belief that technology makes our lives easier and that it can empower everyday people and every aspect of any business, I undertook a successful research project in computational offloading with CDAC in association with IIT-Bombay.
I was selected for the renowned Barclays Rotational Program that has made me garner intercultural working experience in Compliance, Investment Banking and Data & Integration Services by working in different domains and with multifaceted people. Always keen on leading various initiatives, many of my various functional deliveries have been recognized to enhance customer experience. I have recently been selected to be a part of some new project management opportunities.
With an unusual mix of traits that combine idealism and action, I strongly desire to become a catalyst in contributing to activities that create an impact.
Within just two years in the industry I have proactively started umpteen initiatives – driving the pilot ‘Reverse Mentoring’ culture for directors and colleagues early in their career, ambassador for Diversity and Inclusion Network for Barclays IMGame and Queen's Olympiad, winning gold medal in Swimming, Athletics and Badminton, hosting and performing various plays for the Embrace Cultural network – to name a few.
What empowers me with a sense of definitive purpose for all my undertakings is getting nominated for Global Recognition Program under the category of ‘Entry Level Talent’. I am a corporate Toastmaster trophy winner and a certified dancer in contemporary, hip-hop and Bollywood.
“Shine brighter than the sun" is the underlying asset that i own. While every person is a unique fingerprint, I am, Tanya Thourani.
Shriya Rihal | Aon
Shriya joined AON in July 2013, as a Jr. Analyst and soon progressed to being Sr. Analyst in a short span of time. Her success can easily be seen in the exceptional performance ratings that she has been getting in the last few years. She is now one of the Certified Knowledge Wizard with advanced knowledge of Aon tools.
Shriya has been working for US and Canada Markets and has spearheaded two technology transitions in her short tenure with Aon’s key global stake holders and product owners successfully. Shriya has collaborated with the partners at AON in developing several new offers and has trained Canadian team with Aon’s proprietary technology and product.
Shriya is been taking lead and being inventive in developing new processes and procedures with Aon’s updated reporting platform and is the subject matter expert on multiple products and is also responsible for training across the globe.
She is the founder of ‘GATE-o-Pedia’ (now renamed as ‘Bits and Bytes’) which is a weekly digest to spread knowledge within operation, markets and stakeholders globally.
Shriya has, successfully transitioned –‘Rapid Engagement Survey Reporting’ to Operations teams, and generated more than 100 benchmarks in a span of 2 to 4 months by leveraging SPSS tool to merge data for 500-600 organizations.
She is recognized by AON’s global council of leaders for exemplifying the following behaviors: X-FACTOR – Xtraordinary, Focused, Accelerating, Candid, Teamwork, One global practice and Relentless.
At her leisure, she likes to cook, bake and explore new recipes! She is passionate about clicking photographs, good music, long walks and quality time with her fur buddy.